I’m going to pay for that genealogy thing when I get home. Fingers crossed it shows I’m fifty percent Targaryen, thirty percent British royals, and one hundred percent Oprah’s long-lost sister.

I am a lean tiger in winter. Come for me. I dare you.

I am the wind. None will capture me. None will remember me. None will see me.

Anyway, we get it. We all know what it’s like to roll with the cultural punches. Noora gets questioned about why she doesn’t wear a hijab. People wonder if Glory was adopted when she’s with her white dad. Hansani endures Mr. Apu accents – wrong country, for starters.

Grief is a powerful thing, and sometimes, if it’s ignored, we can become lost in it.

A weapon tempts violence, courts bloodshed. Once you’ve beckoned death, you cannot unbeckon it.

But if I had know I had a daughter, I would have found a solution.” He studies me, waiting until my eyes raise to meet his. “I would have swum across the oceans. I would have scaled mountains. I would have crossed deserts. I would have found a way.

You mustn’t believe that. To believe something gives it weight and meaning. It taunts the gods and goddesses to turn it true.” “You are too optimistic.

I don’t have an American half and a Japanese half. I am a whole person. Nobody gets to tell me if I am Japanese enough or too American.

If you train on all weapons, you master none.